1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that is capable of updating installed firmware, a control method therefor, and a storage medium storing a control program therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are well-known periodical update functions that update software of an information processing apparatus automatically and periodically in order to always keep the software up to date.
Some of such periodical update functions allow a user to designate the time at which new software is downloaded.
Furthermore, a function for updating software manually and a function for designating the time at which software is updated are also known. Moreover, the technique that downloads a program and installs it to a computer without a user's operation (i.e., by no click) is also disclosed (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2008-282251 (JP 2008-282251A)).
However, the above-mentioned publication does not disclose downtime during which a user cannot use the computer, and therefore, does not propose the optimal software update method. Moreover, there is no detailed description of how to process the downloaded software, and it is not clear.
Furthermore, since the periodical update function updates the software after downloading, a user cannot use the computer within update process time.
FIG. 12 is a timing chart showing procedures of a conventional update process.
As shown in FIG. 12, a download process will be performed when download time comes in a normal operation state in which copying, printing, etc. are executable. After finishing the download process, the computer returns to the normal operation state again. Then, when updating is instructed because an update time comes, the computer will reboot and will be in an update starting state.
In the conventional update starting state shown in FIG. 12, coded parts are decoded (developed), firmware is updated, and then, the computer will reboot again. Thus, the conventional technique needs longer downtime for the update process because the downloaded parts are decoded after updating is instructed.
It should be noted that a series of processes in which compressed or encrypted parts are decompressed or decoded, and firmware is updated as mentioned above is referred to as a regular update process in the description.